{"id":490906,"date":"2019-10-04T12:44:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T18:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=895137"},"modified":"2019-10-04T12:44:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T18:44:26","slug":"demi-lovato-apologizes-for-accepting-controversial-trip-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/demi-lovato-apologizes-for-accepting-controversial-trip-to-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Lovato Apologizes for Accepting Controversial Trip to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Demi Lovato<\/a> has become embroiled in controversy following a trip to Israel<\/a>. The singer was reportedly paid $150,000 to be baptized in the Jordan and post content from her trip, which was seen as a political statement on her part given the ongoing occupation of Palestine.<\/p>\n

Over the course of this week, Lovato has posted heavily about her trip to Israel. She cited her Jewish ancestors and Christian upbringing as a reason why the experience was particularly spiritual for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was offered an amazing opportunity to visit the places I\u2019d read about in the Bible growing up, I said yes,\u201d she wrote in the caption of a photo-set of her being baptized. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt such a sense of spirituality or connection to God\u2026something I\u2019ve been missing for a few years now. Spirituality is so important to me\u2026to be baptized in the Jordan river \u2014 the same place Jesus was baptized \u2014 I\u2019ve never felt more renewed in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lovato immediately received backlash from fans and critics of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, many of whom called her a Zionist for partaking in the trip and ignoring the significant political implications. A reporter for Haaretz<\/em> noted that she had not mentioned in any of her posts who had brought her to the country, and that this is odd<\/a> for government-sponsored trips. Israeli newspaper Ynet<\/em><\/a> reported that Lovato had been paid $150,000 by the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, with more provided by a private donor.<\/p>\n

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Follow-up drama on Demi Lovato\u2019s Instagram page. After being castigated as a Zionist tool \u2013 she posted this on her story \u2013 and then took it down. pic.twitter.com\/4bbMlO0P4F<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Allison K. Sommer (@AllisonKSommer) October 3, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a since-deleted Instagram story, Lovato apologized to her followers while claiming that the trip was free. \u201cNo one told me there would be anything wrong with going or that I could possibly be offending anyone,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWith that being said, I\u2019m sorry if I hurt or offended anyone, that was not my intention. Sometimes people present you with opportunities and no one tells you the potential backlash you could face in return. This was meant to be a spiritual experience for me NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT and now I realize it hurt people and for that I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lovato is not the first celebrity to receive backlash for visiting Israel. Brian Eno and Roger Waters criticized Nick Cave<\/a> for playing in Israel in 2017, while New Zealand activists encouraged Lorde to cancel her 2018 show in Tel Aviv. Later, the New Zealand activists were ordered to pay $12,000 in damages<\/a> for the canceled show.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demi Lovato has become embroiled in controversy following a trip to Israel. The singer was reportedly paid $150,000 to be baptized in the Jordan and post content from her trip, which was seen as a political statement on her part given the ongoing occupation of Palestine. Over the course of this week, Lovato has posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-21 20:55:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}